Of all the things I’ve ever written about in this space, Cooper’s IHT is the topic that gets the most questions by far. Every single week I hear from someone whose dog started tremoring, they googled the condition, and found our story. While it makes me feel good that I can provide a resource to folks facing the same thing with their dog, it also makes me sad that so many dogs are experiencing this.

The second-most-repeated question is, and I’m paraphrasing here: What is Cooper eating these days? I think the other way people find this space is by googling something like: HALP OMG my dog has allergies! Or: why is my dog so itchy? Or: seriously, wtf is wrong with my dog’s skin?

So, I’m hoping this post can be a bit of a resource. If your dog doesn’t have IHT or your dog doesn’t have allergies, feel free to skim (you never know what might spark a great idea for your pup!) or come back another day. If your dog does have IHT or your dog does have allergies, I’d LOVE for you to weigh in on your diet and routine in the comments. This community grows so strong by sharing our experiences on how best to care for our beloved family members.

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PLEASE NOTE: I’m not a vet. I’m not a vet tech. I’m not involved in any useful medical field in any way. I’m not a dietitian, nor am I anything skilled in any way other than being a writer who obsessively researches ways to take better care of my dog. So, please read this post from that place, knowing I’m sharing my experience. My first recommendation in all things health, diet, routine, and behavior is to see your vet.

How we manage Cooper’s health with diet and routine:

Here’s why I’m lumping together a conversation around allergies and IHT: I theorize that, in Cooper at least, the two are related. I believe that his weak immune system contributes to both, and that when his allergies flare up, his IHT flares up, as well. This is simply a correlation, of course, but an example of this is right now. His eyes are pouring goop, and I can see his ears starting to get itchy… and he’s had two tremors in the last week.

This post isn’t specifically about his bobble-headedness, but if you want to learn more about that, check out these two resources:

What this post is specifically about is how we manage Cooper’s health through his diet and routine. It relates to the IHT and it relates to his allergies because, for full transparency, if he didn’t have those conditions, we’d probably have a much simpler, much cheaper routine. So, here we go:

Diet

We are generally strong proponents of healthy eating around here, and that includes the animals. For a long time, we cooked for Cooper. IF you find your dog is experiencing food sensitivities or allergies, I strongly recommend talking to your vet about an elimination diet. It’s a massive pain in the ass. Truly, a nearly-impossible feat to accomplish (WHY are there half-finished sandwiches on sidewalks?), but it was so, so worth it for us. We figured out many of the things that were causing him big problems and were able to cut them out completely. No more bloody stools! Yay! 🙂 If you’re interested in home cooking, here are a couple resources:

That said, we’re not home cooking for him currently. At some point during our home-cooking adventures, The Honest Kitchen launched a line of limited-ingredient foods. One of the formulas was nearly identical to what we were home cooking, and we gave it a whirl. Thankfully, it worked out, and he’s been happily eating The Honest Kitchen Brave ever since. It saved us a TON of time, though it’s more expensive than cooking, but the time, oh lordy, the time it took to cook… That said, IF he ever needs to switch for any reason, I’m grateful we now know what to do!

Supplements

We’ve tried a zillion supplements, and the key is finding ones that don’t have flavoring from his allergens (like, so many come with beef liver flavoring, which he simply can’t have). So, here’s what he’s on now, how often, and my favorite resource for each:

Every morning at breakfast:

Apoquel

One big scoop of Udo’s Choice, which is basically a vegetarian (no allergens!) multi-vitamin

It looks like a lot, but it goes pretty fast, and we actually share the probiotic and the coconut oil with the kitties, too. (Maybe a post on their routine? Let me know if that’s of interest…)

Exercise and Training

Cooper gets a ton of exercise. He runs with John. He “runs” with me on occasion in nice weather if it’s not too hot but it’s slightly cloudy so as not to be too sunny and I don’t have anything better to do. We hike weekly. I want him lean and strong, so we make sure he gets a ton of physical exercise.

But.

Since this is Cooper we’re talking about, training is important, too, since he flips out when we’re out and about if he sees a scary person (in other words… a person…) or dog. So we do tons and tons and tons of training with him, which sort of is counter to the healthy diet and exercise because it takes a lot of treats. If it’s stuff around the house or yard, or when we’re out and know we won’t see anyone (like, if it’s raining), we use a dehydrated fish treat. If it’s any other scenario–like, there might be people or dogs around–we use squeeze cheese.

It’s easy to carry, easy to dispense, and extremely high-value for him. It’s also disgusting, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Vaccines and Meds

Recently, someone commented that I’d turned my dog into a druggie who was going to die of cancer. Why? Because I give him Apoquel AND I vaccinate him. I want to be super-duper-crystal-clear here: YOU have to decide what’s right for YOUR dog. You should make those decisions in consultation with an expert and by conducting your own thorough research (i.e. not relying only on the first result in a Google query).

That said, yes, Cooper takes Apoquel daily. His skin used to crack and bleed, now it doesn’t. I get that there are side effects, but as with any medication in the world for pets or people, it comes down to weighing potential side effects against potential benefits. In the case of Cooper and Apoquel, the benefits tipped the scale.

He’s also on a flea and tick medication about 10 months out of the year. We hike a lot. We live in a tick-dense area with high incidences of tick-borne illnesses. I’m not willing to let his compromised immune system try to do battle with something as serious as say, lyme disease, so we prevent the risk.

Same with vaccines: I vaccinate Cooper. I believe strongly in vaccines for people and pets. I think that fear and opinion have clouded the science-based discussion around vaccines (another post for another day perhaps???), but it’s the best choice for our family. Plus, Cooper goes to doggy daycare and we do occasionally board him at the same daycare. It’s for his protection, and for the other dogs at daycare.

Other Considerations

I’ve heard amazing things about veterinary chiropractic care recently, and I’ve also been interested in integrative medicine–combining traditional with western medicine, including food and supplements, etc.–and found a practice nearby that we’re going to try very soon. If you guys are interested, I can share our experiences with that.

In conclusion…

I hope this sparked some ideas for you and your pet. If your dog suffers from allergies or IHT, know that I’m here for you to bounce ideas! It’s taken literally FIVE YEARS of trial-and-error to nail down this routine, so I sure hope this helps someone with similar struggles.

If I didn’t cover it all, or if you’re left with questions, please do leave them in the comments below!

Thank you so much for spending your time with me reading all this!! I appreciate you so much!

We haven’t been to the vet yet, but I’m nearly 100% certain he has an ear infection. He started shaking his head and pawing at his ears a couple days ago. I looked, and his left ear was pretty gunky. It’s a Whole Big Thing to clean Cooper’s ears. He flips out.

Over the past couple days, we’ve been doing treats + headlock + cotton ball soaked in solution. He tucks his tail and shakes and attempts to run and hide from us. He yelps. He flails. It’s torture. For him and for us. In fact, last night took it to a whole new level and actually snapped his teeth, which broke my heart.

But, we battled him to clean his ears with the wild hope that it was just dirt, that it would clear up. But, two days of fighting, and it almost instantly refills. It’s an infection. I know it must be insanely painful for him to have these infections. I know it must be scary for a him, high-strung nervous dog, to deal with this ear situation. He doesn’t understand what’s happening. He just knows it hurts. But there is literally no way around it.

If history is any indication, we’re on the cusp of his serious seasonal allergy attack. Along with the ears, yesterday I noted he’s started licking his feet, a sure sign of impending allergic doom, and his eyes have been little faucets. I want to get him on this supposed miracle allergy drug called Apoquel, but they under-produced the pill and have put clinics on a waitlist. As of last fall, we were first in line for it if our clinic got any in, so when he sees the vet, we’re going to make sure we’re still queued up for that. I have a lot of hope for that drug, to be honest, because it’s pretty much the only/last option for him, even though I don’t think it would affect his ear situation.

Incidentally, this is the first time our new vet here will have to deal with Cooper and his ears… the last two times were in Louisiana, and before that, we had a different vet in Indiana. I’m going to give him his anti-anxiety supplement before we go in the hopes that it’ll take some of the edge off. No joke, last time he had to have his ear swabbed, it took four people. Four. To swab his ear.

So, I have that to look forward to.

Depending on how his vet visit goes, I may or may not have fingers to type any longer so this may be my last post-HA!

Anyway, super, super sorry for the gripe fest! I know many of you deal with similar issues–allergies, fears, health stress, etc.–so here’s hoping your summer season is off to a better start than Cooper’s!

Let me start by saying: I am not a vet. I am not a nutritionist. My background qualifies me to correct grammar. That’s about it.

I am, however, an obsessive researcher, and I’m neurotic about solving problems. I’ve gotten many messages about home cooking for Cooper since I mentioned it a few weeks ago. I’ll try to address them the best I can, but if you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!

If you’re interested in home cooking for your dog, I’m going to share our journey over a few posts. Today is all about how we got started.

Cooper suffers from a range of allergies and intolerances. His fur has fallen out. He’s broken out into pimples, and he’s developed hives. He’s had head tremors. And he’s had constant diarrhea (like, five or six days a week) that had recently become bloody. Over four years, we spoke with several vets and strove to manage or treat each symptom as it arose. We put him on limited ingredient and prescription diets, which didn’t work. We did an elimination diet, which showed us that he couldn’t have chicken (the main ingredient in those prescription diets…) or beef. After we eliminated those proteins, we settled on fish as his main protein and chalked up the rest of his symptoms to seasonal allergies.

I do think the drastic change in climate – from Indiana to Louisiana to Indiana again – messed with his system, too, because the bloody stools started only after we got back. So, we talked to our vet, and she suggested that he had maybe developed an intolerance to fish. We switched him to lamb. He did okay for a couple days, then back to an upset stomach. Then pork. Same thing. Meanwhile, we had been noticing that his training treats weren’t working for his stomach either. Cooper goes to doggy daycare on Mondays, and one Monday a few weeks ago, they had a note for us at pickup: Cooper has bloody stool.

That was the last straw for us.

We looked at his ream of vet records tracking four years of symptoms. We looked at all the foods he could no longer eat, including treats. Looking at all the data at once, I started to suspect that it isn’t one particular thing that upsets his system, but rather processed food in general or some sort of additive that’s aggravating his system. This is sort of happening in human health right now with all the developing digestive disorders that might be linked to GMOs and processed food. It seemed likely that could be the case for Coop, too.

Once we came to that realization/decision, we immediately stopped feeding him kibble and started cooking his meals. (There are a range of reasons we’re not considering raw an option, so this has been the perfect solution for us so far!)

For the first couple days, we were winging it, then I dove into the research, and we took him in to chat with his vet. We have a rough outline of a plan that we’re refining. This is getting pretty long already – thanks for sticking with me this far! – so tomorrow I’ll share what we’re feeding, including treats and supplements, plus some helpful resources!

Have you tried home cooking for your dog? Any favorite resources or recipes? I’ll have more to share in the coming days, but I’d love to hear your experiences or your questions in the comments!

So, it was sort of a weird coincidence that I posted a collection of Cooper pics yesterday because then this conversation happened:

Well. Dangit.

Four years of having my boy’s birthday wrong.

So, last night we pulled out some puppy ice cream and celebrated Cooper’s fourth birthday!

And followed it up with a trip to the vet today…

Some of you guys noticed that he’s been back in his cone. He got some kind of sting or bite on his back leg, which was making him loony. But he’s been itchy head to tail, scratching open a rash in his armpit. And his eyes are faucets.

We’ve tried a bunch of different things and monitor his food so closely that I was sure it had to be seasonal. According to the vet today, there’s a real issue right now with tree pollen.

I really wanted to get him on Apoquel, but our clinic is on a waiting list and won’t get any until January. Rats. We’re trying another anti-histamine for the next two weeks and making (yet another) tweak to his diet. Overall, though, she was really happy with how his skin is looking (I attribute that to the addition of coconut oil to his diet – thanks, Sof!) and isn’t too worried about his runny eyes at this point because the goop is mostly clear.

Of course, as we were driving home I realized that scheduling his appointment for today was, perhaps, an error on my part. It was a hugely stressful event, as usual, and the poor guy has reactive dog training tonight. Ooops. Hope I can make the rest of his afternoon fun and stress-free to create a separation between two intensely stressful events!

Well, probably not. I mean, for sure it’s emotionally harder on me. But he is miserable.

So, we’ve been struggling with this, basically, since he was six months old. We’ve been tackling symptoms one at a time, but looking back on that post, they’re all here again: rashes, itchiness, running eyes, ear infections, barfing, diarrhea. Currently, his eyelids are puffy, and he has two sores on the insides of his thighs. He woke up this morning with his left eye completely shut because of the amount of gunk built up. The skin under his chin is broken out and swollen. He has little hives under his armpits, and he can’t. stop. itching. That’s why he’s in the cone – the scratching and licking were making him (and us) insane.

Could it be a new food allergy? Maybe? We have him on a limited ingredient diet, but we did try a different brand of a protein he did fine with previously. We also bought a different brand of coconut oil.

Could it be environmental? Maybe? He had such similar symptoms before, and we’re in a totally different climate, so maybe there’s something here that irritates him more than in Indiana? I guess we’ll see if anything starts to clear up next week.

Mostly likely it’s a combination of factors (again), and all we’ve been able to do is tackle one symptom at a time.

For now, he’s on a Benadryl regimen and will be in the cone. We also gave him a bath last night with the Organic Oscar Holistic Bite & Itch Relief shampoo and the Aloe conditioner, hoping to soothe some of the itching. I have a package of skin wipes, too, that I think we’ll utilize every time he comes back in the house, hopefully to get rid of any pollen or allergens that stick to his fur. We’ve been using a combo of Cortisone and Aquaphor for his sores and his feet, but he HATES them, so now when he sees me coming, he runs and hides. Which breaks my heart.

Last night the poor guy was so sad and sulky. We let him sleep in bed with us, snuggled up with his Comfy Cone on. And, at 5:00 this morning, he barfed on us.

My plan for now is to write out his history – looking through it all, he’s seen three different vets about this – so I want to compile it all into a comprehensive story and have a meeting with our new/fourth vet in Indiana. My poor dog’s allergies are killing me. And him. We need a better plan… I mean, other than sticking him in a bubble.

Anyone else going through this? I know dogs all react differently, but have you found a solution for a food/environmental allergy combo? Would LOVE to know what’s working for you!